JH 5? 



rive at the depth of sixty-three feet ; where there is a stratum of 

 sand, mixed with gravel and shells, similar to those which appear 

 on the coasts of Italy. These successive strata lie always in the 

 same order, wherever pits have been dug ; and, sometimes, the 

 boring instruments fall in with trunks of large trees, which the 

 workmen pierce with great labour : they likewise meet with bones 

 of animals, pit-coal, flints, and pieces of iron. Ramazzini, who re- 

 lates these facts, thinks, that the Gulf of Venice formerly extended 

 beyond Modena ; and that this land, in the progress of time, has 

 been gradually formed by the rivers, assisted, perhaps, by inunda- 

 tions of the sea *. 



In the Isle of Anglesey, subterranean trees are frequently dug 

 up ; and in the Isle of Man is a marsh, called Curragh, six miles 

 long, and about three broad, in which subterranean fir trees, in vast 

 quantities, are found : and though eighteen or twenty feet below 

 the surface, they appear as if standing firm on their roots. 



Subterranean trees are found in various parts of Ireland, particu- 

 larly in the morasses ; but the greatest attention has been excited 

 to the wood, actually in a petrified state, which is found in the 

 neighbourhood of Lough Neagh. 



Dr. Boates, in his account of Lough Neagh, relates, that on the 

 borders of that lough are found little stones, of a pretty moderate 

 length ; some of them round in their compass ; others flat, or flat- 

 tish ; and some angulous : and which being looked on, as well near, 

 as from afar off, seem to be nothing else but wood ; and by every 

 one are taken for such, until one come to touch or handle them : 

 for then, by their coldness, hardness, and weight, it appeareth that 

 they are not wood but stone. But with respect to wood, placed in 

 the lake, being turned by its water into stone, he says, he had never 

 been able to learn the fact, from any persons who had themselves 



* Buffon's Natural History, vol. i. p. 481. 

 VOL. I. I 



